Religious emphasis week is a special time on the campus of UPIKE. This is a set apart time for the campus to celebrate its Christian identity, historical Presbyterian connection, and to further explore life with God in the 21st century. This year’s focus is on “Looking Again: Seeing the Familiar in a New Light” and throughout the week of November 9-16, 2014 the UPIKE community will be participating in various activities, lectures, and special events focused on peace. The community is invited to all evening events.

Spiritual Emphasis Week 2014: November 9-13th, 2014

“Looking Again: Seeing the Familiar in a New Light”

November 9, Sunday night a Special 7:37 will be held in Booth Auditorium.

“John Dear is the embodiment of a peacemaker,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote a few years ago when he nominated John for the Nobel Peace Prize. “He has led by example through his actions and in his writings and in numerous sermons, speeches and demonstrations. He believes that peace is not something static, but rather to make peace is to be engaged, mind, body and spirit. His teaching is to love yourself, to love your neighbor, your enemy, and to love the world and to understand the profound responsibility in doing all of these. He is a man who has the courage of his convictions and who speaks out and acts against war, the manufacture of weapons and any situation where a human being might be at risk through violence. For evil to prevail requires only that good people sit on the sidelines and do nothing. John Dear is compelling all of us to stand up and take responsibility for the suffering of humanity so often caused through selfishness and greed.”

John Dear has spent over three decades speaking to people around the world about the Gospel of Jesus, the way of nonviolence and the call to make peace. A Catholic priest, he has served as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organization in the United States, and after September 11, 2001, as one of the Red Cross coordinators of chaplains at the Family Assistance Center, and counseled thousands of relatives and rescue workers. He has worked in homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and community centers; traveled in warzones around the world, including Iraq, Palestine, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, and Colombia; lived in El Salvador, Guatemala and Northern Ireland; been arrested over 75 times in acts of civil disobedience against war; and spent eight months in prison for a Plowshares disarmament action. In the 1990s, he arranged for Mother Teresa to speak to various governors to stop the death penalty. He has two Master’s Degrees in Theology from the Graduate Theological Union in California, and has taught theology at Fordham University.

John Dear has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and elsewhere. For many years, he wrote a weekly blog for the National Catholic Reporter, and is featured regularly on the national radio show “Democracy Now!” and the Huffington Post. He is the subject of the DVD documentary, “The Narrow Path” (with music by Joan Baez and Jackson Browne) and is profiled in John Dear On Peace, by Patti Normile (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2009). His nearly thirty books, including Living Peace, The Nonviolent Life, Lazarus Come Forth, The God of Peace, Jesus the Rebel, Disarming the Heart, and his autobiography, A Persistent Peace, have been translated into ten languages. John Dear is on the staff of Pace e Bene and www.campaignnonviolence.org. He lives in northern New Mexico. For further information, see: www.johndear.org.

Wilma Bailey

Wilma Ann Bailey, Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic Scripture, joined the faculty of Christian Theological Seminary in the year 2000. Bailey holds two degrees from Vanderbilt University, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Religion specializing in Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] with a minor in Anthropology, one from Goshen Biblical Seminary “Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaries,” an M.Div., and one from Hunter/Lehman College, a B.S. Prior to CTS, she served on the faculty of Messiah College and the faculty of Goshen College.

Bailey was designated a Regional Scholar (1999) by the Society of Biblical Literature. She is the author of “You Shall Not Kill” or “You Shall Not Murder”? The Assault On A Biblical Text; The Contributions of the Israelite City to the Shaping and Preserving of the Religion of Israel [1000-586 B.C.E.]; Catalogue of Resources for Black and Integrated Congregations; several Adult Bible Study Guides: Genesis: God Created a People, Called To Be God’s People, Worship and Wisdom For Living, Genesis: Beginnings, “Look Forward in Faith: Hebrews,” “Advent: To You A Savior,” and numerous articles and essays. She has been a guest lecturer at Howard University School of Divinity, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Goshen College, Fresno-Pacific College, Bethel College (Kansas), Bucknell University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has presented scholarly papers in meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and a variety of other settings. She is currently working on a commentary on the biblical book of Lamentations.

She is the current president of the Eastern Great Lakes Biblical Society (2008-2009)

For many years, she served on the Board of Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, U.S. and the Mennonite Board of Education. She is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of Eastern Mennonite University. She attends Shalom Mennonite Church.